The weather definitely did not help anybody's mood on the way up to the castle. Everybody was partially soaked going the short distance from the train to the carriages, and then once outside the school itself, became fully drenched when running towards the Entrance Hall. There was plenty of slipping and sliding once inside the castle, but everyone managed to make it to the Great Hall in one piece.

The Sorting Ceremony felt far too long. Violet wasn't particularly enthused by the new first years, merely wishing for the feast to start as soon as possible so she could get to bed as soon as possible. This was now the second year in a row that she had been in less than good spirits for the start of term feast and she was sincerely hoping it didn't keep up for the remainder of her time at Hogwarts.

By the time the feast started, Violet turned to Hermione with a frown. "Empty chair. Normally Dumbledore announces the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher before we eat," she said. "You don't think… maybe… he's trying to soften the blow and we've finally ended up with Snape?"

"How much was it I owed you if we did have Snape?" Harry asked her from across the table. Violet hung her head down, exasperated. "Oh, god, sorry…"

"Hang on - did you two have a bet you weren't going to tell anyone about?" Fred asked, catching onto the topic of conversation.

"Ten Galleons if it's Snape?" Violet suggested, causing Harry to groan from her bedroom floor. It made her giggle and lean up on one elbow to look down at him from her bed. "What?"

"Too high. How about five if it's Snape?"

"Fine. What's your end of the bet then?"

Harry lay back in thought for a moment. "Hmm. I'd say five Galleons on some sort of celebrity or legend becoming our next Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Broad."

"You took Snape first!"

Violet sighed, then stuck out her hand for Harry to shake. "Fine. Done deal."

He grinned at her as they shook hands.

"Yes, we did," Violet said, looking up at Fred.

"We should make it a thing," George said.

"This wasn't even…" she sighed. "Yeah, make it a thing I guess…"

"Atta girl, Vi, just let it happen…"

She went back to her food after that, namely picking it at it because she had little to no appetite after what had happened on the train. She could feel her friends staring at her, the three of them extremely worried. She couldn't help it. She couldn't help feeling the way she did right now, and she certainly wasn't going to force herself to eat because it would ultimately make her feel worse.

Violet tried her best to push everything to the back of her mind, which was helped when Dumbledore stood to make yet another speech. That was odd, he never usually spoke twice.

"Now that you're all well fed, I thought it might be the right time to announce that this year, Hogwarts will be playing host to a legendary event: the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore then announced. That caused a great amount of chatter and excitement among the students' even Violet perked up.

"Now this has got to be what my parents and Bill were on about!" she hissed across the table to Harry and Ron.

"For those unfamiliar with the Tournament, it brings together three magical schools to participate in three tasks; extremely dangerous tasks. Due to this, the Ministry of Magic has decided that no student under the age of seventeen should be allowed to enter the tournament."

That caused an uproar among some of the older students, but the headmaster managed to get them all the hush. Fred and George were particularly vocal in their disagreement with the newly imposed rule.

"But… eternal glory awaits the person who wins the tournament. A witch or wizard from each school shall be chosen by an impartial judge, which shall be revealed in October when our guests from the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and Durmstrang arrive," he carried on. "There, we will-"

At that point, the enchanted ceiling went into overdrive with the thunderstorm, with lightning almost striking down on both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. It caused more of a fearful outcry from the students (who were almost ready to flee) when suddenly it was calmed by a beam of magic, coming from the back corner of the Great Hall by the staff table. Everyone looked over, and Violet let out a squeak.

"What?" Harry asked.

"That's - that's Mad-Eye - I mean, Alastor Moody," she said, and they all watched as the man stepped - or rather clunked on his wooden leg - forward to greet Dumbledore.

"As in the Auror?" Hermione clarified.

"Yes."

"Auror?" Dean Thomas asked, a little confused.

"My mum's one…" Violet told him. "They catch dark wizards, and it's due to Moody that half the cells in Azkaban are full. My mum worked with him briefly after the First Wizarding War. He helped train up another lady… oh - her name was Nymphadora Tonks, I believe…"

"What's Mad-Eye doing here, though?" Ron wondered.

That question was answered soon enough.

"I suppose now is a good time to announce that your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year will be Alastor Moody!" Dumbledore announced. There was some rather faint, confused clapping that echoed throughout the hall.

Harry and Violet locked eyes across the table, the latter's going wide as a doe's.

"Oh no…"

At those words, a smile slowly slid onto Harry's face.

"Does he count as a celebrity or legend?"

"He does…" Violet groaned. "I'll give you the money tomorrow morning…"

"...Should all be heading off to bed now!" Dumbledore had finished talking, and all the students began to hurry after their Prefects.

Everyone was murmuring about the Triwizard Tournament on the way out of the Great Hall, and the Weasley twins had already started thinking up a scheme to try and enter.

Violet remained quiet, her thoughts now drifting to that of Alastor Moody being their new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. She couldn't wait for it, in all honesty: he'd been an Auror for a very long time before retiring, so he was bound to share a more profound knowledge than any other teacher could about the subject. As much as she had picked up from her mum here and there, she knew there was going to be more of a merit of learning from Moody in the grand scheme of things.

On getting to Gryffindor Tower, Violet made a beeline straight for the girls; dormitory, not even bothering to say good night to anybody. She was exhausted. She was still actively trying not to think about what had happened earlier on. She just wanted to wake up for the first day of school in an actual good mood.

Which is exactly what happened: the next morning, she felt more like herself again. Not one hundred percent, and admittedly she was the last one down to the Great Hall out of her friends, but at least she felt ready for lessons.

"How are you this morning?" Hermione asked, buttering some toast.

"Better than yesterday."

"Are you sure?"

"Um, yes, why?"

"Well…" Hermione tilted her head to the side, her brow knotted ever so slightly. "Your hair's down. The only other times I've seen that is during exams when you're stressed."

Violet didn't say anything, and combed her fingers awkwardly through her elbow length hair before throwing it over the front of one shoulder. "Yes. Well. Can't be helped," she eventually answered before also getting herself some toast.

Ron passed her her timetable, saying "we're outside all morning. Least the weather's eased up a bit."

"True," she said, nibbling on her toast. Violet still didn't quite have an appetite back, but was hungry enough to have that small bit of breakfast.

After that, the four of them headed down to Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, where they had to pretend to be enthused by Blast Ended Skrewts while feeding them. The fact that this was going to be a term long project was not at all pleasing. The day didn't get much better as in Herbology they had to extract pus from Bubotubers (Violet had a near miss with some puss squirting towards her suddenly and nearly going in her face).

"Do I just have really bad luck at the moment?" she wasn't happy in the slightest as they headed back up to the castle at the start of lunch. "That could have burnt my face off!"

"Can't be that bad luck if it missed you," Harry pointed out. "By the way, you still owe me five Galleons."

"Oh, right, of course," she mumbled, fishing around in her pockets until she found the coins and dropped them into Harry's outstretched palm.

"Don't forget we have double Divination this afternoon as well…" Ron added.

"Brilliant. Fourth year so far has been awful."

"Come on, Violet, it's only the first day! There's plenty of time for things to get a lot better," Hermione said brightly in an effort to cheer her up. "If you want, you can always read over any Arithmancy homework I might get later?"

She seemed to soften at that. "Oh, alright."

Just when Violet thought things were actually going to get better, they got worse.

Far, far worse.

"How's your mum, little one?" The all too familiar voice of Dexter Oaks called out from further down the courtyard. Violet stopped and turned to find her cocky cousin approaching her, flanked by his group of friends.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron stood firmly by Violet when they realised her attention had gone elsewhere.

"She's fine, thank you, Dexter," she replied calmly. "How's Fletcher?"

Dexter was taken aback, but more of in a mocking sort of way. "Isn't that Uncle Fletcher to you?"

"He's no more of an uncle to me than my mum is an aunt to you," Violet said through gritted teeth. "And Lamia? How's she?"

"Have it your way… they're both fine, actually. Finding it rather funny that their blood traitor sister is on their tail."

Violet inhaled sharply, really restraining herself from doing anything stupid. A crowd was beginning to form around them, made up of students from all the houses. She did her best to ignore them and focus on ending the conversation with Dexter before anything too rash happened.

"What do you get out of this, Dexter? I'm three years younger than you, don't you have someone your own size to pick on?" She was beginning to get angry now, under the surface there was something bubbling away, and her fingers twitched next to the pocket where her wand was.

Dexter shrugged. "You could have been something, little one. Your family could have been something good if your mother hadn't married that Mudblood, you do realise that?" He was trying to push her over the edge, and it was working.

"My family is perfectly fine, thank you very much," Violet managed to get out.

He snorted. "I'd never let a werewolf into my family-"

Violet was so angry that the moment she dropped her bag and whipped her wand out to throw a spell at Dexter, she didn't even need to say it and suddenly his legs were locked together. He was flailing his arms, trying to keep his balance, and managed to reach for his wand. All students backed away from the pair and formed a circle around them instead.

The Ravenclaws were begging Dexter to stop, the Slytherins were egging him on, the Gryffindors were cheering on Violet (meanwhile Hermione was going on about non-verbal magic), and a second year Hufflepuff ran off proclaiming they were going to get a teacher.

"Impedimenta!" he shouted. Violet's next motion was slowed down entirely, but she still managed to cast her next charm.

"Accio bench!" she said, just as the jinx wore off, and all the students ducked as one of the nearby benches in the courtyard came flying over their heads and straight into Dexter's side, knocking him flat to the ground. His wand flew out of his hand, and he couldn't reach it for the life of him: his legs were still locked together.

Violet stormed over to him, ready to hex or jinx or curse him again, when Harry ran forward into the circle and grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.

"Get - get off me!" she cried at him, struggling to break out of her friend's grip.

"Violet, you've - you've made your point, he's Disarmed!"

She elbowed him in the ribs and he let go of her. What Harry didn't expect was to train her wand on him with tears in her eyes. Harry took out his wand too, almost regrettably though. The circle of students had gone deathly silent.

"You - you said you wouldn't hold me back," she said to him, her bottom lip trembling. "I thought that would have - would have counted for him, too…"

"It does. But he's on the floor, Violet," Harry said. "You won, okay? You won."

She was shaking her head, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. "I haven't - not until he stops this, I'll never win."

"Violet…" Was that pity on his face? Sympathy? She wasn't sure, but it let her know he understood she was hurting, but at the same time didn't want her to get into trouble. Somehow, the use of her name broke through to her that he was right: Dexter was on the floor, Disarmed, and if she had done anything more to him, she would have been just as awful as her cousin. She would have unintentionally proved whatever point Dexter had been trying to make.

Breathing heavily, Violet finally pocketed her wand and started to walk towards Harry who also pocketed his wand. He had her bag in his other hand, and gave it back to her. She didn't look at her friend and opted to stare at her feet, but soon enough her view was Harry's shoulder as he pulled her towards him for a hug that she had no effort to return. She was completely drained at this point. He didn't care that she didn't return the hug.

"What on earth is going on here?" came a rather angry Scottish voice. "All of you - unless you had something to do with this - off to lunch where you should be!"

Tens of pairs of feet could be heard scampering away inside the castle, but Violet still refused to look up from Harry's shoulder.

"Miss Merryworth…" McGonagall said to Violet, resting a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "Miss Merryworth, perhaps you'd like to bring Mr Potter with you while we discuss your punishment?"

At that point, she finally stood up straight again, and shrugged out from Harry's arms, and McGonagall lowered her hand. She glanced over at Dexter who was currently getting his legs unlocked by Flitwick.

"Professor… I - I threw the first curse…" Violet then mumbled, which took her Head of House by surprise.

"She was provoked, Professor," Harry then explained.

"To my office, the both of you." She turned on her heel and the pair followed her. Ron and Hermione simply watched as their friends were led back into the castle.

It didn't take long for them to get to the first floor. McGonagall's office was in a small room next door to the Transfiguration classroom, and while it was cosy, it was also very prim, proper, and ordered. It really did reflect their teacher in that regard.

Harry and Violet sat themselves down at the desk opposite McGonagall, who had the look of someone that couldn't believe she was already having to punish a student on the first day of term.

"Miss Merryworth, I understand that you have a complicated relationship with your family members, but it does not mean you can duel on school grounds like that! In any case, it could be grounds for expulsion-"

Violet's eyes widened.

"-But…" McGonagall continued. "Considering your usually impeccable record, and taking into account the previous incident with your cousin, that won't be the case this time. You will be serving weeknight detentions with me for the next month, and fifty points will be deducted from Gryffindor. I will also be writing to your parents."

Violet nodded.

"Do you want to explain why you threw the first curse at Mr Oaks?"

"Well…" Violet began in a rather dry, monotonous voice. "I didn't take kindly to him calling my dad a Mudblood, making a jab at Lupin, and finding it funny that my mother has to effectively try to prove that his parents are Death Eaters. That on top of a few similar comments that Draco Malfoy made on the train yesterday…"

McGonagall nodded. "I see. And is it true you cast the spell non-verbally?"

"I - um - y-yes," Violet said, going pink. "I don't know how or why… I suppose - maybe I was angry enough and thinking hard enough about the leg-locking curse, I just… and reading about it over the summer has helped too, I guess."

"Quite right." McGonagall was trying to remain impartial, even though it was clear she was quite impressed with her student. "Miss Merryworth, you have a good friend in Mr Potter, here. I'm glad to see that. Off you go."

They were out the door as quickly as possible, and started to head towards the Great Hall in silence, neither of them sure what to say to the other. That was until they could hear remarks from passing students, who actively tried to walk out of Violet's way as much as possible.

"Don't want to get hexed by Mad Merryworth…" a Slytherin girl muttered to her friend, and similar comments were being made by all houses except for the Gryffindors.

Violet kept her head down, and Harry kept reminding her quietly to ignore it.

Hermione wasn't with Ron at the Gryffindor table, and he was sitting there eating on his own until Harry and Violet joined him. Seeing the look on the girl's face, he elected not to ask about what McGonagall had said. While the boys chatted, Violet could barely eat. She picked at her food as she had a tendency to do when her stomach felt like it was in a knot.

That feeling made Divination almost unbearable, but thankfully she, Harry, and Ron chose a table that was tucked away in the corner of the room, away from the prying eyes of other people. How she managed to just about pay attention to Professor Trelawney was absolutely beyond her.

What she hadn't been expecting was the reception she received in the Gryffindor Common Room once lessons had finished for the day, particularly from the sixth and seventh years.

"Never thought I'd see anyone take on Dexter Oaks!" a seventh year told her. "Thank you - just, thank you."

"Violet, nobody cares you lost us points - all he does is bully the younger years," Angelina Johnson reassured her. When Violet raised an eyebrow in regards to the house points comment, Angelina quickly backtracked. "Okay maybe people are a bit annoyed, but in the grand scheme of things… you'll probably earn them back quicker than other people do."

"You did something spectacular today, Vi," Fred Weasley said to her, coming to throw an arm around her along with George, and they led her to the sofa and sat her down.

"Dexter Oaks deserved every bit of what you threw at him," George said.

"And you used magic non-verbally! That's not something we learn about until our sixth year!" Hermione said very excitedly as she sat down in the armchair next to the sofa. "I need to come and see your book collection…"

How had something that broke plenty of school rules earned Violet comments like those from her fellow housemates? Why weren't they more angry? Had Dexter really been that bad and she hadn't known? Her head was spinning, and she couldn't take in any more of what anybody was saying. She tried to smile, nod politely, maybe answer a question here or there, but she felt like she was drifting from her body.

Violet wanted nothing more - in that moment - to disappear back into the shadows as per her first and second year here, and keep quiet, do her homework, and not end up in situations like this. Not be the centre of attention. It made her wonder if she was still without friends, would she still have Duelled her cousin that lunchtime? Probably. Nothing would have stopped him making the same comments. The only difference was that she wouldn't have had Harry to stop her from being so rash.

She made eye contact with him, briefly. He was sitting on the floor opposite her. A sense of calm washed over Violet and she felt more like herself again, and more engaged in what she was being asked. She realised, it didn't matter how quickly they looked at each other in that moment, she felt it again. Violet felt something between them, and she did her best to ignore, aware of the fact that Harry's jaw had dropped open ever so slightly.

Violet ignored it. This was not the time.